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Will OSFI changes go too far?

Many in the mortgage industry, both brokers and lenders, are now awaiting to hear if OSFI will implement some or all of the B-20 guidelines announced earlier this year and whether there will be any changes to these rules that could have a major impact on the lending landscape. Pacific Mortgage CEO and Mortgage Summit panelist Ron Swift says many of the proposals go too far and may do more harm than good to the market.

Ron Swift: I think the OFSI B-20 guidelines I think are overkill for the Canadian marketplace. You know, once again I like to base my numbers or my changes and views based on numbers, not based on, you know there seems to be a government sentiment around, we have got too much debt and we got too many, you know we got a housing bubble, those kind of things. So let’s look at the numbers and the numbers suggest Canadian lenders are prudent today and I think that some of the pieces of the new legislation or proposed legislation are not necessarily [good] in Canada. An example would be renewals. The suggestion in this would be that we would have to re-qualify consumers at renewal.

Now think about that, when you qualify them upfront, guy makes payments for 5 years, never misses a beat, we then to re-qualify him again and potentially doesn’t meet whatever the new standards are today at that time. We now say, sorry, you no longer qualify to have a mortgage, get out. So you know if we are trying to really manage the real estate market, is there a housing bubble, is there not, if we are trying to move towards hopefully a soft landing, implementing sort of overstated and overreached policies from what’s really happening in Canada, I think will not get us a soft landing, but potentially a hard one and I just don’t think that’s the way to run the business. Run it by the numbers, not because of what we feel.

Marketing for brokers is about cost-effective methods that deliver results, says Ingrid Menninga of Jolt Marketing, who will be presenting "Monetize your Marketing" at the upcoming Mortgage Summit, powered by CMP magazine. One of the first decision brokers need to make when putting together a marketing plan, she says, is to decide who their most important clients are.

It wasn’t too long ago that the prevailing wisdom held that variable-rate mortgages were the way to go. Now, a recent poll reveals that fully half of all Canadians said they would choose a fixed rate mortgage if they had to decide today, a 10 per cent increase from a year ago. That’s a huge shift from the past five years, when people saved money by sticking with variable rates. Brokers can certainly attest to this trend, and say they are seeing clients choose longer term mortgages with rates at historic lows. They are also recommending that clients go with as long a term as possible, event 10-years, as rates haven’t been this low in 20 years. This week we spoke with Catherine Evel, mortgage broker/owner and mortgage agents Kelly Sams and Julia Parkin at Dominion Lending Centres-Homestead Financial. Find out on today’s The Big Story, on MortgageBrokerNews.ca TV, your home for industry news, opinion and analysis.

The right product for the right client. This is especially true for HELOCs, which now account for almost 50 per cent of non-mortgage debt. Even as government moves to cool this market by withdrawing its backing, brokers are finding more lenders are offering them the product. Brokers caution however, that HELOCs need to be used wisely. They need to present the product properly and advise responsibly, so the best long-term interests of their clients are met. This week we spoke to, Ron Alltree, Kunaal Bhalla, Sarah Makhomet Deepak Bansal and Jonathan Tillger, of Dominion Lending Centres Mortgage Village. Find out on today’s The Big Story, on MortgageBrokerNews.ca TV, your home for industry news, opinion and analysis.

New code of conduct rules for lenders mean they must clarify prepayment and penalty terms for borrowers. While brokers welcome these changes, they feel they don't go far enough. This week we spoke to Nick Kyprianou, CEO, Equity Trust Financial and Deepak Bansal,Ron Alltree, Kunaal Bhalla, Sarah Makhomet and Jonathan Tillger, of Dominion Lending Centres Mortgage Village. Find out on today’s The Big Story, on MortgageBrokerNews.ca TV, your home for industry news, opinion and analysis.

Spring is upon us. The spring housing market that is, as the winter weather really never arrived in most parts of the country this year. Typically, it’s the busiest time for home purchases and renewals. Brokers who haven’t been preparing by marketing themselves and reaching out to clients and referral partners are likely to get left behind. It’s when things are slow that brokers say you should be reconnecting with referral sources such as Realtors and your client database who are likely to know someone who is looking to purchase or refinance. This week we spoke to Sarah Makhomet, Kunaal Bhalla, Jonathan Tillger, Ron Alltree and Deepak Bansal of Dominion Lending Centres Mortgage Village. Find out on today’s The Big Story, on MortgageBrokerNews.ca TV, your home for industry news, opinion and analysis.

Most brokers think it could never happen to them. But mortgage fraud is still a problem. Not anymore with brokers than with banks, but a recent report put the cost of mortgage fraud at $400 million, a number everyone should be concerned with. For brokers, preventing fraud comes down to “knowing your client”. Education is also key in knowing what to look for when putting a deal together. This week we spoke to Ray Leclair, VP, public affairs for LAWPRO (TitlePlus), Lee Welbanks of The Mortgage Centre and Bill Eves, Wayne Sudsbury and Grant Brown of Homeguard Funding Ltd. (VERICO). Find out on today’s The Big Story, on MortgageBrokerNews.ca TV, your home for industry news, opinion and analysis.

It’s no surprise that this year’s federal budget is focused on reducing debt. But it’s not just their debt that concerns Finance Minister Jim Flaherty. With Canadian household debt continuing to rise and home prices slowing, but not dropping, some have predicted that the government will tinker with mortgage rules for the third year in a row and lower the maximum amortization period. Not surprisingly, most brokers disagree with this option. MortgageBrokerNews caught up with some brokers at the Centum inaugural conference – VISION 2012 – held in Toronto. This week we spoke to Enza Venuto, Paul Therien, Karim Talib, Aniruddh Raol and Jimmy Hansra. Find out on today’s The Big Story, on MortgageBrokerNews.ca TV, your home for industry news, opinion and analysis.

With recent events, the lending landscape outlook remains uncertain. What effects are these changes going to have on the broker channel and how will brokers adapt? Some say it will be short term pain for long term gain, while others think a new order will be created. On today’s Big Story, we spoke to Lee Welbanks of The Mortgage Centre, and Wayne Sudsbury, Bill Eves and and Grant Brown of Homeguard Funding Ltd. (VERICO). Find out on today’s The Big Story, on MortgageBrokerNews.ca TV, your home for industry news, opinion and analysis.

It’s been an ongoing debate for a while now. Housing bubble – no housing bubble. The latest numbers support the idea that the Canadian housing market will have a soft landing in 2012. In January, CREA reported that sales activity was down for the first time since August of 2011, while prices increased by a modest two per cent year-over-year. Forecasts for economic and job growth going forward vary widely for different parts of the country, meaning some markets may soften while others pick up. For experienced brokers, continuing to work with Realtor partners may be one key to surviving any drop-off in the market. As well, people will continue to buy, refinance and renew. So regardless of what the market may or may not do, brokers need to continue to show clients why brokers are an integral part of the home-buying purchase. On today’s Big Story, we spoke to mortgage broker Paula Roberts and mortgage agent Dena Kakaletris of The Roberts Group-Dominion Lending Centres. Find out on today’s